The Richard W. Barta training complex is a gem among law enforcement training centers — and a huge step up from the landfill the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office formerly used.

The training complex includes:

■ A 100-yard shooting range, complete with programmable, moving targets and its own water runoff filtration system to prevent lead pollution.

■ A large classroom that transforms from lectures to combat practice.

■ Enough acreage for a driving course and other improvements down the road.

The $1.5 million complex, located in southeast Shawnee County, draws law enforcement agencies from all over the state. Nearly all of the capital improvement project — acquiring the 10 acres, building the training offices and making the other improvements — was made possible through confiscated money from convicted criminals.

“It’s bad guys paying to train good guys,” said Sheriff Herman Jones. “Sheriff Barta didn’t want this to be a burden on the county.”

The complex was constructed in 2009 and 2010. Jones was sworn in as sheriff on May 3, 2012.

Since 2008, Barta and Jones together have spent about $3.3 million in federal and state drug forfeiture money, money proven in court to have been made illegally and thereby property of the law enforcement agencies involved in its seizure.

The attorneys who prosecute the asset forfeiture cases — a civil procedure separate from corresponding criminal cases — also get a chunk of the ill-gotten gains, between 15 percent and 20 percent, according to the statute. In that vein, Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor has spent more than $622,500 since he was elected in 2009.

State law dictates how those funds are spent — in fact, an earlier attorney general opinion ruled capital improvements are a prohibited expense.

While the broad language leaves expenses to the discretion of the agency heads, most officials agree: The money isn’t a slush fund to be spent at random, and public perception is as important as statute violations.

State statute

The statute is clear what the money should go toward — training, equipment and other items that supplement the offices’ purposes. The money can’t be used to set the offices’ budgets and can’t go toward normal expenses, such as salaries and bonuses. Also, there is no set timeframe to use the funds.

Other limitations have been added through attorney general opinions.

Capital improvements are one, according to a 2007 opinion from former Attorney General Paul Morrison. The opinion stated vehicles and equipment are fine, as long as they don’t replace expenses already coming from the general fund budget.

The statute provides a great deal of discretion to the people in charge of agencies receiving drug forfeiture dollars. The “additional law enforcement and prosecutorial purposes” are determined “as the county or district attorney or other governmental agency’s attorney deems appropriate,” KSA 60-4117 reads.

Officials say the Kansas Legislature in 1994 wrote the broad language intentionally to allow for more leeway. The check came in the form of annual reports filed with the entity with budgetary authority — in this case, the Shawnee County Commission.

The reporting requirement implies the entity that receives the reports has the responsibility to hold the law enforcement agencies accountable. If the statute isn’t followed, ultimately the Legislature has that responsibility.

Shawnee County Commission Chairman Bob Archer said the commission has no control over how either entity spends its forfeiture dollars, though both Jones and Taylor say they put the forfeiture expenses before the body.

Archer declined to comment on the activities of other elected officials. However, he said, he has encouraged anyone who takes on a new responsibility to ask for an internal audit to make sure the office is running efficiently and appropriately.

The sheriff’s office had one such audit on its federal and state forfeiture expenses for 2012. Finished Oct. 10 of last year, the audit found the sheriff’s office “is in compliance with every requirement” surrounding both funds. The county’s auditing office has yet to finish such an audit on Taylor’s funds.

While Archer was pleased to see the result of the sheriff’s audit, he also noted appearances can be as important as outright violations.

Expenses

Jones and Taylor insist all of the so-called “drug dealer money” has gone toward additional purposes of their offices, lumping some of the questionable purchases in with the important goal of community outreach and education.

One example is the $13,760.60 the sheriff has donated as a member of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce. Taylor has given $1,539.

“It’s to be connected to the community,” Jones said. “Law enforcement is part of the community.”

Spokeswoman Marsha Sheahan said the chamber has about 1,150 member firms representing as much as 80 percent of the community’s work force. It is in the sheriff and district attorney’s interest to support the chamber, she said, because it works “to create a better business climate for the community” — potentially reducing crime with more jobs.

“They’re really investing in what we do as far as government advocacy and member services and leadership development in the community,” she said.

The sheriff’s office also uses the funds to renew its Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, which helps the agency follow the best industry standards available, from making arrests to keeping records.

Since 2008, the agency has paid more than $70,000 in drug forfeiture money to keep the accreditation. More than $31,000 of that has gone to an independent consultant named Robert Moser, who audits various policies every couple of months.

“I look at CALEA as an insurance policy,” Jones said. “It keeps us in check to do the best practices across the nation for law enforcement.”

The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office is the only sheriff’s agency in the state to have CALEA, he said. The accreditation involves about 450 standards, he said, and the county’s office typically meets more than 90 percent, making it a flagship and example for other agencies.

The sheriff’s office has spent $157,140 in federal forfeiture dollars. In the past three years, about $65,000 total has gone to retired law enforcement officer Rick Hladky for grounds upkeep at the new training complex.

In the past, the sheriff’s office has used state-acquired drug forfeiture money to buy:

■ A $1,494 retirement party for former Sheriff Barta, including $248.50 in flowers and $560 in desserts.

■ $26,000 in gym equipment for the Fraternal Order of Police.

■ $146,289.26 for 99 tasers and $9,610.24 for ballistic helmets and shields.

■ $780 to attend the annual Kansas Prayer Breakfast.

■ At least $3,732.65 toward volunteer and citizen academy meals.

■ $13,300 toward national night out and neighborhood watch events.

■ About $30,000 to Western Associates, which makes promotional materials.

■ $9,000 on a “dual-purpose” canine.

■ $10,019 toward SWAT equipment.

■ $689.99 to Best Buy for television and gift cards for prizes for the Seatbelts Are For Everyone program.

The sheriff’s office also has spent about $110,000 on food, training and travel. Jones said the office attempts to keep most training in state, pointing to the Barta training facility as an ideal site.

Taylor’s office spent more than $165,000 on food, training and travel since 2009.

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Excellent job Sheriffs dept. The deputies are the ones that risk their necks making good cases which results in the forfeiture of this illegally obtained money. So they deserve to get training and equipment and get whatever else with it. Also saving a lot of tax payer money. Good job Sheriff. I'm sure somebody will have a problem with it though.

I agree with you. Great place for training, but would you ask the out of county LEOs to wait to drive like crazy people until they get out of town? I was recently on Gary Ormsbey on a Friday about 4:00 when I was passed by several out of county LEOs,rushing home, I suppose. I'm glad they are here and training, but slow down leaving, OK?

That's a good thought and I see your point. Problem with giving deputies a cash bonus from dope money is then all the cop haters and conspiracy theory nuts will scream how corrupt the Department is. First thing they will bring up is that deputies are stopping people more frequently and for no reason looking for bonus money. Then they will twist it into basically the deputies stop you demand your wallet and then go about their business. If it were fireman, electricians, nurses, teachers etc. somehow getting some extra money for their specific agencies and they were saving tax payers money everyone would be freaking out and telling them great job. But since it's cops things are different.

I don't think it should be a cash bonus type of "raise". They stated that they spent $3.3 million of the drug money since about 2008. I think the commissioners should have a say on how at least some of that money is spent. Setting aside some of that drug money each year, and you know they are going to collect more of it, specifically for raises should not be difficult to do, since it should not be money that is already budgeted and ear-tagged for other budget purposes. Let it build up and use it when raises are warranted.

The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence. - Robert Peel

As long as the police departments directly benefit from this money, they will always be looking for it, even suspecting people who don't have it and maybe to the point that other crimes are not looked at.

It is a clear conflict of interest when those who accuse people of crimes and those who prosecute those individuals can directly benefit from them being found guilty or simply accused.

And many of the expenditures are questionable. The sheriff's office should not be spending money to the FOP for gym equipment. Let the sheriff's office buy equipment for itself in its own building and let the FOP buy its own. The retirement party for Barta, the funds for the prayer breakfast, and the TV are all outside of the sheriff's office, regardless of the questionable reasoning that the sheriff's office extends to the whole community.

As long as the attorneys and police benefit from these funds, they will do everything they can to make sure those funds do not stop. If you had a new source of revenue that allowed you to do more in your life, you would not want it to be removed. Same here. The police and district attorneys will want to do more and more so they will have to accuse more and more in order to get those every increasing funds.

The portion of our law enforcement that is going to drugs then does not represent how big a crime drugs are but instead represents how much money the individual agencies want. Hire a few officers for the narcotics in hopes of increasing their personal haul.

Who are the real criminals here? The law enforcement community is absolutely swimming in cash. There is no wonder why they have no interest in drug legalization---it would cut into their profits. This is nothing more than a system of legalized theft. All of us are threatened by militant law enforcement that have the ability to confiscate first and ask questions later. The fact that these funds are donated to the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE is no surprise. The COC and the Kansas legislature that allows this are all rolling in the same dough. Our election system is nothing more than legalized bribery and our criminal justice system is not much better.

Then there would be no need for more cops. They could make more drug abusers productive members of society with that kind of money. Drug dealers are entrepreneurs, if we could give them something legal to sell there would be a whole lot less unemployment and a lot less people in jail. The state should not be the biggest employer. Less government is better for all.

the true cost of our failed drug war is and this is coming from a veteran drug force law officer.

The title of this CJ article should be; Law Enforcement profits from illegal drugs. Whose the real pusher man here? This just goes to show how sick our society really is when it's own LEO profits from what it is charged to help eliminate. I do believe conflict of interest is defined by this article.

But do feel free to give me as many thumbs down as you can muster but regardless of what you believe Cinderella this slipper fits perfectly.

all of the people railing against the kid (Addison I think is his name) video taping the Topeka police because the police are heroes are now over here slaming the sheriff's office for using cash seized from illegal drug confiscations to train police...

There is absolutely NO reason or law enforcement reason that the Chamber of Commerce be receiving any of this law enforcement money. Everyone knows the Chamber is anti worker and pro business owner in every respect and besides this money gets funneled into the Kansas Chamber where its used to pay lobbyists to do their anti worker - anti employee raise propaganda. Sounds like someone needs to be investigating this improper spending!

I don't have any issues with this money being spent for the range but its not a political slush fund for the Chamber or prayer breakfasts!

You folks do realize the money seized from narcotics deals is money that low life's use, possess, and benefit from meanwhile paying ZERO taxes on like the rest of us. How much income tax is claimed on dope money?? Some of you people are in such a hurry to find a conspiracy or just hate cops or authority so much you truly can't see the forest for the trees. Deputies aren't taking money out of people's pockets and putting it in theirs folks. The money seized has been used as evidence and processed through court. It had been proven to be ill gotten gains from narcotics use and distribution. Every agency in the country, including federal agencies use forfeited drug assets for equipment and training. It save tax payers millions of dollars. Some of your stupid comments about who's the real criminal and this is stealing blah blah are truly so stupid, ignorant, and uninformed it's shocking.

Kansas has some of the harshest drug laws in the US. Which is odd sitting so close to Colorado. For being neighboring states Kansas is polar opposite to Colorado. Well, who is winning? I'm thinking Colorado. You can't even buy a house in Denver anymore. A mobile home and a quarter acre will set you back $80K. Looks like that social liberal mindset is winning the economic contest.

It's hard to argue that there are no consequences from drug use but is it fair to put people in prison, take their money and generally ruin their lives for using drugs? Which does more harm the drugs or the government? For all the millions Kansas is spending to incarcerate non-violent drug offenders you could have paid for this training facility outright with tax dollars. This article is purporting the drug confiscation and subsequent spending as a win but really it's zero sum. The more police and training you have the more drug users you catch and must incarcerate. In the end you're not fixing anything just adding more bodies to incarcerate at taxpayers expense.

Reading other comments I can tell I'm a minority opinion on the subject but from reading this article I'm having trouble differentiating between the good guys and the bad.